Oh man, this brings back some memories. Back in the day when I still had a roommate, we would start a game like Myst or Riven and spend every minute we weren't working playing through Cyan Worlds games.
Inevitably we would get stuck, so we would cave and go online and check for hints. Usually we only required 2 or 3 hints to finish the games. In most cases, it was something small that we missed. Either that, or just buttons and objects stashed away in some remote places where you'd never expect them to be.
Still, I have fond memories of these games and even though we never completed the entire series, I'm pretty sure we got as far as Exile or possibly Revelation.
As for Uru, I guess it is best described as a spinoff of the Myst series, with a multiplayer element. If I remember correctly, the initial release was laden with copious issues, up to and including server problems. I never did manage to get online with the game the first few tries. Then the game sat on my shelf for a long time.
Then several years down the line I heard that Cyan had released the source code to fans so they could operate their own servers. I think this is when I decided to give it another go, and, sure enough it actually worked. However, I wasn't in any place to be playing a puzzle game (either because of my work schedule or because I wasn't in the mood), and I abandoned the game again.
Perhaps I will spend some time reflecting on Myst, Riven, and Exile and my experience with these games. For this post, however, I'd like to share a video by MMO Grinder and his tribute to Myst Online: Uru.
